Starting Insurgent was starting into new territory. While I knew the story of Divergent (though not as well as I thought I did), I have all sorts of information to discover in this new volume. One such piece of information was the exact specifications of Tris and Tobias’ relationship. It might have been addressed in the first book, but this was when I first examine the age gap between the two. At first, I was a little put off (and maybe I still am), but I decided it wasn’t much of an issue since their society treats you as an adult by age 16. Similarly, they’re both in Dauntless, where I can see a similar relationship timeline to those who join the U.S. armed forces.  

Insurgent allows the first look at the factionless as a legitimate group of people. The factionless exist as the city’s lowest class and they’re described as essentially homeless. They were the people those in factions did not want to look at and, I bet, no one understood the scope at which that population had grown. Thrusting that many people into poverty has to be a surefire way to create some government-toppling motivation. I also appreciated how the book took a look at how revolutions can get extreme and trade one evil for another.

Roth continues to give readers little hints that something isn’t right. I don’t want to call it foreshadowing exactly because I never feel the same sort of stress as I do with other instances of foreshadowing. I may not know what to call it, but I do know that I’m a fan of Roth for doing it.

The specific instance in Insurgent that I love is the offhand way Tris says she thinks the bread tastes weird. Having grown up in bland Abnegation, you wouldn’t think it would be a problem. Then, we learn Amity is drugging their bread in order to promote peace among their people.

Another secondary character I wouldn’t have expected much from was Tori, the tattoo artist. I originally thought she was playing the part of the wizened wizard, a person that would guide our hero (Tris) but stay out of the primary fighting. However, she’s emerged with a quick wit and I would bet a quicker draw. Also, she arguably has the best one liners out of the entire series; not funny ones, the ones that cut people to their core and make them realize they’ve messed up.

As the struggle for power gets more twisted, so do the choices our heroic group has to make. There’s a lot of gray area they have to navigate and morals they start to question. When they hatch a plan almost exactly like what the Erudite did to the Abnegation in Divergent, they have to question if that makes it evil to begin. This made it feel like a warzone without having to gruesomely describe any carnage or bloodshed. However, it’s still overwhelming and heartbreaking when Tris does take in the casualties.

It appears no aspect of Tris’ life can escape this tangling, because her relationship with Tobias is also becoming harder to navigate. Sitting next to my weird feelings about their age, the rapid acceleration of their relationship to a very mature level is something that kind of irked me, but not enough that I couldn’t make sense of it. I ended up deciding it was the more logical way of living given their society as well as the war zone that’s more or less centered on them; they don’t just have to consider themselves in their relationship. I did have to wrinkle my nose at the behavior they showed towards one another at some points, but it clears up in a more or less good way (for their situation, at least) as the books continue.

As their relationship grows, readers also get a less perfect idea of who we think of as Tobias. Specifically, I’m thinking about how Tobias is so concerned with not letting the past rule him that he won’t even consider the possibility of Marcus actually having important information. He won’t even listen to Tris, who he’s differed to on a number of occasions as being the brains of the two (though, I would argue Tobias is the common sense, so it’s even worse that he’s acting this way).

The information we learn in Insurgent completely transforms the story I assumed we were getting in just reading Divergent. Nothing has a clear-cut answer and you feel the dire circumstances of the situation without it being over dramatic. Insurgent has drawn me entirely into the story Roth is telling. I am eager to know how such a complicated mess will resolve itself.